A big birthday coming up
Coming from the Carretera Austral we headed to Trevelin – a village with Welsh influence – for some high tea. Konsti was really looking forward to this, not ;-). He was lucky – the teahouses open relatively late and we were hungry so we opted for something else. After an extensive lunch break we headed to Parque Nacional Los Alerces to find a camping spot. It was the evening before Konsti’s 30th birthday and we found ourselves a perfect spot at a lake in this beautiful park. We woke up with beaming sun rays and sounds of the small waves that the wind created. We went on a short hike in the middle of the national park to look for a 300-year old tree and enjoyed the scenery. We were again warned for Pumas. Then Konsti wished to see the house of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – infamous bank and train robbers. They wanted to live an honest life as farmers (or they were just hiding) – first in Argentina then in Bolivia, but their past finally caught up with them and they were murdered in Bolivia :-I.
We continued driving and headed for hippy village El Bolson for an awesome birthday dinner. We drank Caipiriñas and ate the best cut of meat that we’ve had since we’ve been in Argentina.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KONSTI! To many more years to come – cheers!
The next day we went to see Klaus and Claudia – they helped us with insuring our car. We were totally unaware we were about to meet two well known German travellers. We soon learned that they make our trip look like a short little vacation. They traveled around the world for 16 years! We chatted over coffee, helped Klaus a bit on the farm, woke up with the sounds of sheep and bought the best raspberry jam from Claudia. They informed us that ABBA – yes the pop band – and other Europeans headed for El Bolson in the 70s and even wanted to declare the area an independent state. Then the Argentinean government found out and build a school, a hospital etc. to send the message: this is still Argentina.
In El Bolson we visited the market that is well-known, huge and has some nice things to offer. Since we left our wedding rings at home (we were a bit paranoid going into this trip afraid they would be stolen ;-)) we decided to buy two little handmade bracelets. This market also had beautifully handcrafted Maté cups. Konsti had been talking about getting one of them, so now we’re able to make Maté ourselves.
Routa de los siete Lagos
We headed north in the direction Bariloche making a stop at a spectacular viewpoint where we could look at three different lakes: Lago Steffen, Lago Martin and Laguna Huala Hué. The lakes were perfectly situated “behind” each other and streched as far as we could see. The dry bread we had for lunch didn’t bother us anymore. When we arrived in Bariloche we drove up a hill that offered stunning views over the city, lake and surrounding mountains. After that we drove into the city to look at the main plaza – a must for Konsti since top gear was here on one of their specials. We were a bit scared to leave our car, because several people warned us there are professional gangs that rob your car empty while you’re in the city, so we decided to not hang around and to drive further north. After a last stop to get some chocolate (amongst other things Bariloche is known for it’s chocolate) we were on our way.
We drove the Routa de los Siete Lagos – a route that zigzags around (yes indeed) seven beautiful lakes. The route was shorter than expected and we noticed it is a very expensive area – expensive cars and houses – but therefore very estaticly beautiful. We can totally understand that the Argentinians go here for vacation – the distances between the lakes are small, the infrastructure is good and the weather is very nice (at least when we were there). Unfortunately, this is where our camera decided to ruin the next 600 foto’s that we took – we haven’t been able to recover them yet.
We stopped for the night and found a nice spot by a river – a few other overlanders were already there. Getting ready to prepare dinner we discovered our water pump wasn’t working. Luckily the solution was relatively simple – there was and airbuble in the system that we could only dissolve by attaching our shower (which is located a lot lower than the sink). The next morning we had breakfast in the sun and got to talking with our neighbours Camille and Daniel from Brazil and Nadine and Patrick from Switzerland. We started a classic Maté ritual where Daniel explained us how they drink it in South-Brasil. You tilt the cup a bit in order for the herbs to lean to one side and on the other side you fill up with hot water. Then you use a special straw that filters the water. Each person drinks a whole cup and then reaches it to the next person. Nadine and Patrick then packed up and went south. Camille and Daniel were going north just like us and we drove to San Martin de Los Andes together and had lunch overlooking the Lago in the sun.
We then continued alone and headed for another boarder crossing (Paso Carirriñe) through Parque Lanin – we were too late to cross and camped in front of the boarder. The next morning we found out the boarder wasn’t going to open for another 4 days so we drove back through the park. The drive was worth it though, we were totally alone, had great views of the volcano, saw a Huemul running in front of our car for a few hundred meters filming it with our go pro. Konsti also got the shock of a lifetime and found a little tarantula on the ground while he was filling our water bottles at a small waterfall. We didn’t incalculate such gigantic spiders this far south.
Volcanoes everywhere
We headed further north and tried a different boarder (Paso Mamuil Malal) and drove directly to Thermas Geometricas. This is a touristy place, but very nice. There are about 20 different thermal baths with different temperatures ranging from 35 to 43 degrees celcius. The baths are created in a river flowing through a canyon surrounded by lush nature.
We hung out in the different baths for hours, enjoying lunch around the fire and meeting Peter from Canada who told us he was climbing up Volcan Villarica the next day. Since we had knee problems we didn’t want to do it, but when he told us that the whole way down would be on sledges, we were convinced. We headed to Pucon and booked us in for the tour the next day. We camped out at the head of the trail where we waited for the tour agency to arrive early the next morning. We got our backpacks full with gear to hike up the volcano – special shoes, helmets, a diaper (allowed us to slide down the steeper parts of the volcano), crampons, a gas mask for the sulphur coming out of the crater and a sledge. The first part of the hike we “cheated” and took a chairlift up. In winter they ski on the foothills of the volcano. The lift was a bit outdated and had no safety bars whatsoever.
On the top we had to put on our gas masks and went for a look in the crater. We were overwhelmed – both by the fumes but more so by the spectacular view into the crater. It spewed lava every few minutes making a roaring noice. Since it was a very clear day with lots of sunshine we had awersome views in all wind directions spotting lakes and other volcanoes. Then it was time for the sliding down part which was such good fun. The first part we still needed our ice picks to break with to avoid going to fast. Our guide explained us how to do it and joked that if we did it wrong it would be “hasta la vista baby”. After the tour we were invited to enjoy a beer on the rooftop terrace of our guide’s house. After that we drove back to the volcano to enjoy the vistas and the sun for the rest of the day. During the night we were woken up by the wind and Konsti turned the car around so the tent on the roof was more protected from the wind. Our guide told us the previous day that on the night of the full moon and the nights before and after you can see red smoke coming out of the crater and this is exactly what we saw – a starry sky with a white reflecting volcano (snow) fuming out red smoke plumes. We were happy the wind woke us 🙂
We were still not completely ready to drive direction north on the Pan-American highway so we took one more detour. A scenic route via Paso Icalma followed and we ended up camping in the snow looking directly on volcano Lonquimay. The next morning we ran into a Chilean guy at a gas station – he recommended us a vineyard in the area of Chillán called Viña Chillán. We drove there and treated ourselves with a delicious lunch cooked up by a couple from South Tirol Austria and with the best Sauvignon Blanc (we’re no experts, but we know what we like ;-)) we’ve ever had directly from the vineyard. We were allowed to camp in the middle of the wine field soaking in the sun. We bought two bottles to take with us and drove to the next wine farm near Santa Cruz.
Viu Manent was a very tranquil place. We ate a steak lunch with a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon and relaxed the whole afternoon in the sun. We were able to camp right next to the vineyard and enjoy the place alone after all other tourists had gone. The next day we headed to Pichilemu which is a surf town on the pacific coast. The idea was to hang out on the beach and get a bit of a tan, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. So after a nice pancake lunch we headed further north. We camped on a cliff looking out over the beach, a valley with a big town (Algarrobo) to the south – the lights at night were cool to look at – and the sea stretching out on the horizon. It could’ve been an amazing sunset, but the clouds wouldn’t budge.
The next day we headed for Valparaiso without any plan. As soon as we arrived in this city we were stressed (partly due to not having any plan whatsover) and we drove around for more than an hour trying to find a safe spot to park our car. We had been warned that this city forms an overproportional risk of having your things stolen and/or your car being broken into. We were a bit on edge, because of all the pre-warnings. We headed to a museum to get some wifi and to figure out a plan. We decided on using Konsti’s hotel points once more and the first time since we’ve collected the car we decided we didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in it in this particular city. We booked a hotelroom and were able to safely park the car in the hotel’s garage. Then it was finally time to explore this beautiful city. Whilst discovering all the beautiful graffiti and colourful houses we ran into Paul again (we met him in Parque Pumalin on the Carretera Austral). We hiked up one of the viewpoints together which offered amazing views over the city and harbour. After our walk we went for an amazing tuna steak and got to enjoy the luxury of a hotel room – a hot shower and a super soft matress.
After a very good nights rest we discovered our slight paranoia wasn’t based on nothing. We were waiting for Paul to give him a lift to Santiago and had been standing outside of the parking garage for 3 minutes when it happened. Konsti had gotten out of the car to clean the window and I was still sitting inside. Then I asked Konsti what happened, because it felt like someone kicked one of our tires. He sad he had no idea and I sat there for a few minutes just minding my own business. Then a guy walked up to Konsti to tell him one of our tires was broken. We pretty soon realized it was a scam, because we couldn’t have driven through something so sharp that it would puncture our tire since we had only gone about 50 meters on a perfectly good road. Luckily I didn’t get out, because as we heard later it indeed is a very well known scam in Valparaiso. They slash your tire and hope you will go check it out leaving the front cabin unattended. This gives the thieves the opportunity to steal any valuables that you have lying around. We got away with only a slahed tire and quickly drove into the garage again. There we discovered that the jack to lift our car up to change the tire was broken. We then drove to the nearest gas station to ask for help (the tire was pretty flat by then) and the guys there were very helpfull. The first thing on our “to buy in Santiago list” was a jack. After handing out a few beers to show our appreciation for the help we were on our way to Santiago.
We drove into Santiago a bit later than planned due to the tire incident, but prepared this time. We had send an e-mail a few days earlier asking the park administration for permission to camp in their big parking lot in front of Parque Metropolitano de Santiago that the locals use for cycling, yogging, swimming etc. Although it was just a dusty parking lot we immediately liked it here. We were in the middle of a gigantic city sleeping in our car and there were a few other overlanders there as well. Unfortunately, the trouble with our car continued for a bit that day and we discovered that one of our front windows didn’t want to close anymore. Sleeping with the window open didn’t sound like a good idea and Konsti spend hours trying to fix the problem. He couldn’t find the bug so he had to pull the window up and somehow fix it in an improvised manner for the night. The next day we spend all day at a garage getting new tires (two of our tires were broken and the other two were very worn down), having our brakes fixed and getting a general service. They couldn’t help us with the window. It all took forever and we spend 10 hours at two different garages.
The next day would be a public holiday so we wanted to get everything done, but this was too ambitious. We were too late to pick up our laundry which was a bit uncomfortable since we ran out of clean underware (too much information? :-)). The upside: the weather was really good and we could instead walk around in bikini and swimshorts all day. After a long day of doing chores, we were invited to dinner at the house of a very nice Chilean family that we met at the Carretera Austral: Valeria, Gerardo and their two daugthers. We brought a nice wine from Viu Manent and they cooked up a killer asado. They also had invited friends from Uruguay and we had a blast. We could improve our Spanish a bit, learn more about Chilean culture and history and we ended the night at 2.30 in the morning singing Chilean songs. We had too much wine so we ended up sleeping in their driveway and were invited to breakfast the next morning. They even had a special bread from Germany and it tasted even better than at home. We had an awesome time and discovered true Chilean hospitality.
That day Konsti turned our car into a workshop and managed to fix the window. We also finally met some fellow overlanders – Laughlin and Ryan from Wyoming and Ben from Colorado and had a nice beer/wine/fernet branca night. Every night after that the beer/wine/fernet branca circle got bigger. We got to meet Grant from Colorado, Justine and Etienne from Switzerland and Rolando from Chile. Unfortunately, they are all heading south so we will probably not run into them anymore.
We weren’t very good tourists in Santiago and we spend the weekend like any other local: at the mall (buying groceries and running some errands), walking through the park, relaxing in the park and going to the swimming pool. The pool was packed with locals on a hot Sunday afternoon, but it offered us a nice insight into the local life. We sat there for an hour with our legs in the water just observing. One of the things we noticed is that people that don’t know how to swim also go into the water thinking this is a good idea – clinging themselves to the sides. On Monday we organized ourselves a new and proper jack and some stuff for our chemical toilet (yes, the Defender is super tiny, but we made space for a toilet) and discovered a Vapiano restaurant. We couldn’t resist and ordered a pizza before hitting the road to drive north.
That’s it for now. We’re heading further North to learn about pisco (Chilean drink – although Peruvians would argue they discovered it), surf a bit (well Konsti) and drive through beautiful desert landscapes and salars (Atacama and Uyuni amongst others).
¡Hasta luego!
The South American Roadtrip 